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How many of the students actually paid full price or were actually good? What pisses me off about that article is that they gloss over the fact that many students get scholarships and that because of the more open door policy (at least for SCAD) of course you are going to have underperforming students who can't get creative jobs. But that's not really the school's fault. Besides... No art degree from ANY college is really worth 50k per year. Why not list all of them?

I went to CCAD and it's not a terrible school, but it's just not worth the price you pay. For that kind of tuition, you might as well suck up the extra cost, pay a bit more and go to a place like Art Center or Ringling, anywhere that will actually teach you proper and relevant things. Hell, with places now like TAD, Futurepoly, Schoolism, Animation Mentor, etc, there is zero reason to make such an uninformed choice and get ripped off.

Art colleges are this thing where, in my opinion, you either go big or go home. And CCAD doesn't really stack up where value for money is concerned. From my experience and what I learned CCAD should really cost something like half or a third of what they charged, and this is including a 32k scholarship.

Also, I don't entirely agree with the idea that art schools need to admit only 'good' art students to produce good work. Visual literacy is learnable and teachable, there are actual rules and guidelines that can be followed that will instantly raise a student's awareness and quality of work to at least a decent level. I'm not saying a school is responsible for turning every random Joe into Marko Djurdjevic, but the school should at least impart a modicum of quality and a foundation strong enough to let the student keep growing after graduation. When there are still anime furkids in my graduating illustration class, you know that's a problem.

Hell, with places now like TAD, Futurepoly, Schoolism, Animation Mentor, etc, there is zero reason to make such an uninformed choice and get ripped off.

This particular part I can't really agree with. College, provided you're finishing a 4 year degree, gives an opportunity to work overseas without much legal hassle, that other cheaper alternatives do not, sadly, have.
From my point of view (that of international student), TAD would be a killer experience if they actually granted recognized degrees at the end.
For anyone not concerned with further juristic shenanigans (US citizens not planning to relocate further for examples), all alternatives you've listed are totally valid.
Agreed on all your other points as well.

on the fourth day of glitchmas my painter™ gave to me
four random crashes, three broken brushes, two system hangups & one corrupted workspace

A degree is important for legal reasons, but I'll argue that one could attend various places to get a real art education, in addition to getting a degree from some place cheaper like a state university (some of which have really amazing art programs too, for half of the price), and STILL come out with less loan debt than what overpriced private art colleges would give you.

A degree from a public university is roughly 16k a year including living expenses. That's 64k for four years. You could go to TAD for an additional 30k and still have spent 94k. That's even an extreme case. A lot of the other schools are not anywhere as expensive (but also not full-time either).

A degree from a private art college is around 150k alone with no scholarships, if you get lucky and get some form of dwindling scholarship, that drives it down to around 100k to 120k or so -- and you'd still not get the same amount or quality of education. Degree or no degree, a private art college is only worth that kind of money if they pretty much railroad you into a company, and even then it's questionable when there are simply so much better alternatives.

A degree is important for legal reasons, but I'll argue that one could attend various places to get a real art education, in addition to getting a degree from some place cheaper like a state university (some of which have really amazing art programs too, for half of the price), and STILL come out with less loan debt than what overpriced private art colleges would give you.

A degree from a public university is roughly 16k a year including living expenses. That's 64k for four years. You could go to TAD for an additional 30k and still have spent 94k. That's even an extreme case. A lot of the other schools are not anywhere as expensive (but also not full-time either).

A degree from a private art college is around 150k alone with no scholarships, if you get lucky and get some form of dwindling scholarship, that drives it down to around 100k to 120k or so -- and you'd still not get the same amount or quality of education. Degree or no degree, a private art college is only worth that kind of money if they pretty much railroad you into a company, and even then it's questionable when there are simply so much better alternatives.

That is considering the fact that you finish in 4 years.

for BFA students technically their degree is 5 years if I'm wrong on this my bad.

Also you left out supplies.
Museum trips, self promotion, ect.

Tuition is one thing, but supplies, museum trips, zoo trips, self promotion are another story.

Just throwin in my 2 cents

Something else I noticed is most people do public school then go to art school after that.

Don't wake me for the end of the world unless it has very good special effects